San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi has introduced an ordinance that would require large supermarkets in San Francisco to use only compostable bags. The ordinance would affect supermarkets that have more than $2 million in sales and would help San Francisco better its waste diversion figures, according to San Francisco officials.

"The San Francisco Department of the Environment estimates that the United States uses 12 million barrels of oil annually to make 30 billion plastic bags. They estimate that San Francisco uses between 50 and 100 million bags a year, which accounts for about 2 percent of all waste and leads to annual cleanup costs of about $8.4 million."

According to city officials, compostable bags could be put in the "green" curbside cart, and could even be filled with food scraps, which would help take away what they call the "ick" factor from curbside food scrap pick-up.